The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, September 20, 1917, Page 7

. misinformed and prejudiced peo- ness class against the farmers— Z he wasn’t announced as a League representative and if he did not speak of the League’s work or of politics. The laboring men of Aberdeen felt indebted to the Commercial club for the financial aid it had given for the meeting. The unions are not very strong there yet, but will be stronger soon. The union men finally told the League speaker, who had arrived to take part in the meeting, that, while they resented this interference, they could not in- sist on any more than the Commerecial elub had conceded. The League representative replied that he would not speak unless he was announc- ed as a League representative and that he would not accept any dicta- tion as to what he would say.- He said that when the Aberdeen unions had become strong enough to plan their own meetings and have the speakers they wanted, without having to accept the dictation of their employers and the business men, he would return and speak. But he did not speak Labor Day. : These two insults by Commercial clubs to the organized farmers -on the same day and in two different states will be remembered by the farmers who are paying their good money and devoting their energy to make the Nonpartisan league a success in those states. One of the chicef charges against the farmers of the League is that they are ““set- ting class against class’ and that their movement is a “‘class move- ment.’”” This charge is untrue and unfair. The real persons who are setting class against ' class are ple like those at Alexandria and Aberdeen who were responsible for the insults to the farmers on Labor Day. They are the ones who are setting class against class—they are setting the busi- trying to inflame the business men against the farmers. But this won't work for long in Minnesota and South Dakota. The farmers’ and the business’ men’s interests are so interlocked that they can mot be separated. The farmers need the towns and the towns need the farmers. In North Dakota this big fact—the necessity of farmers and business men of the towns co-operating— has been learned. When ' the League first started some North Dakota business men were foolish enough to do what business men in Minnesota and South Dakota did on Labor Day. Now, when a League meeting is announced for a North Dakota town, the busi- ness men hang out welcome signs, fix up rest rooms for women and children, furnish music and enter- tainment and donate money to ad- vertise and make the meeting a success. North Dakota farmers appreciate and respond te this kind of treatment. Farmers will ' respond to it in Minnesota and South Dakota, when the business men of those states learn the need of co-operating with the farmers—an they will learn it soon—we hope not too late. - ® % ®» Taking a cent and a half off the price of beet sugar is a good idea. But the price of beet sugar has increased more than five cents in the l_ast . five years, while the price to the grower of sugar beets has barely in- creased at all. Wouldn't it be a good idea to lop off another cent and a half from the manufacturer’s profit and hand part of the saving back to the beet grower? e T IS a notable fact that the “rule or ruin’’, anti-farmier press of I North Dakota is less truthful and less inelined to retract its lies against the Nonpartisan league than -the anti-farmer press of Minneapolis and St. Paul. A recent imstanee shows this difference forceably. Both the anti-farmer press.of North Dakota and of the M'win Cities carried the false and misleading report that Lynn J. Frazier, farmers’ governor of North Dakota, had invited the People’s Council to meet in North Dakota, after the governor of Minnesota had forbidden it to meet in Minnesota. But most of the St. Paul and Minneapolis papers corrected this misstatement, in fairness to the gov- #®rnor of North Dakota—or at least printed the statements of Governor ;‘mzier or President Townley of the Nonpartisan league, telling thy real facts, The North Dakots gang press, however, lot their les stand. GIVING HIM THE FACTS Drawn expressly for the Leader by J. M. Baer Some of the Twin City papers who wrongly reported the incidenf carried the following statement by Mr. Townley correcting their first, stories: “The first wrong impression I wish to correct,”” Mr. Townley said, “is that Governor Frazier invited the People’s Council to go to North Da- kota. He did not. The council requested permission of him to hold its meeting there. Secretary Lochner of the People's Council wired Gov- ernor Frazier immediately after Governor Burnquist had ruled that the meeting could mot be held in this state, asking if it could be held in North Dakota. Governor Frazier could not very well do anything else and support the constitution of the United States. “The Nonpartisan league has absolutely nothing to do with the People’s Council. It has taken no part in its development and proposes to take no part. “We believe, however, that the war does not repeal the constitution of the United States, which guarantees to American people the right of assembly and free speech. That doesn’t mean, however, that citizens may gather to resist the laws of the land or to hinder the government in its successful prosecution of the war.” But North Dakota papers which carried the lie about Governor Frazier inviting this council not only refused to correct the statement, but refused to print the governor’s or Mr. Townley’s statement in regard to it. The reason for this difference is not hard to find. The anti- farmer press in the Twin Cities and in North Dakota are equally strong in their opposition to the farmers’ organizing and are equally opposed to the Nonpartisan league, its program and its leaders. But the Twin City papers, though in the fight against the farmers, are run by NEWSPAPER MEN and the North Dakota gang press is not— it is run by peanut-headed politi- cians who believe that the politic- al gang’s cause is served by sup- pressing even the statements of the opposition, no matter if those statements are NEWS and. of value as such regardless of the policy of the newspaper. ; * * * Speaker Clark of the house of representatives the other day made a speech advocating taking 80 per cent of war profits to finance the war ano was forced to pause be- cause of the violence of the ap- plause. There seems to be a lot converts, recently, to the Townley brand of “treason”. * “ »* NORTH DAKOTA'S GRAIN ACT HERE was a majority of hold-over politicians in the o 1917 North Dakota senate, who were elected in 1914 and couldn’t be touched by the people in the 1916 election, which, as to other offices, was captured almost unanimously by the Nonpartisan league farmers. Among a few good League bills the gang let get by was the North Dakota grain act. It is just beginning to be realized what this act means to farmers of North Dakota. This was the bill fought most viciously by the Bismarck Tribune and the Grand Forks Herald, the chief organs of the political gang during the session. They said the bill was silly and a fraud, but the Nonpartisan league representatives put it through the legislature. Now it appears more plainly why this bill is dangerous to the Big Interests and why, therefore, the newspapers that were putting up the fight for the Big Interests fought it so hard. Besides assuring North Dakota of honest grading, so far as the grading can be honest under the federal grades that the United ‘States government is enforcing all over the country, this act is going to give the North Dakota inspection department an opportunity. to get a most important and valuable check on the big mills and the grain combine.” Every car of wheat the North Dakota inspectors grade is going to be sampled and the SAMPLE MILLED, and BREAD BAKED FROM THE FLOUR. Then, in case of appeal from the original grading, the state is going to have an absolute check on the milling value of the grain, and no “‘fummy”’ work can be put over on appeals, as was so’ often the case when North Dakota wheat was graded by Minnesota in- spectors. Furthermore—and more important yet—the state is going to have an official record OF THE MILLING VALUE, by actnal tests, AND THE BREAD VALUE, by actual baking, OF EVERY CAR OF NORTH DAKOTA WHEAT GRADED BY THE STATE. These rec- ords—official and incontrovertable—will show up the facts in regard to the federal grading system, which is defended by the mills.